Monday, March 31, 2008

PENTIMENTO II


Pentimento II (another frances gumm album), the EP sequel to PENTIMENTO (a frances gumm album) has been posted over at the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience.

Like the first Pentimento, this version also featurtes rare pre-recordings from TJGS.

These particular tapes had originally been in Judy's possesion as she used them to rehearse with.

The files won't be posted forever so be sure to mosey on over and give them a listen.

MADELEINE PEYROUX


A few samplings from the unique and gifted Madeleine Peyroux have been posted over at the Yahoo experience. Be sure to check out this talented Brooklyn girl who brings to mind Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, and hints of just about every great girl singer that ever was!

THE CANARY AND THE FUNNYMAN




Judy Garland and Groucho Marx worked together on radio a handful of times in the late 40's and early 50's. They seemed to respond well to eachother, and Groucho never failed to give Judy a case of the giggles.


Posted over at the Yahoo group are excerpts from two shows they did together in the winter of 1951.


They are great fun!

FRANK SINATRA AT HARRAH'S, 1976




Other new files over at the Yahoo group include ultra rare recordings of Frank Sinatra performing at Harrah's in 1976. John Denver and Sam Butera are also on the bill with Sinatra.


One of the highlights is Franks performance of the rarely heard Johnny Mercer tune, Empty Tables.


Be sure to stop by and check it out.

THE COMMON JUDY


Recordings from Judy Garland 1967 concert on the Boston Common have been posted to the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience. Judy is in top form as she performs before an enthusiastic audience.

Here are a few reviews from the concert that I found on the live performances site:


Part waif... And All Heart... That's Judy by Gloria Negri - The Boston Evening Globe 09/01/67


She stood there, a small figure in a gold-and-green sequined pants suit, part woman, part waif, and all heart. "We Love ya, Judy!" voices called out in the dark from among the 100,000 Judy worshippers who jammed Boston Common and spilled out into downtown streets last night. "I love you, too." Judy whispered back through the mike. Then, she blew them kisses, first with one hand, then with the other. Arms flung open, she symbolically enveloped them all. "I want you all to come up to my room after the performance." Judy told them. Earth Mother, Soul Sister, Living Legend. Judy Garland is all these things to people.
Boston's mayor, John F. Collins, seated next to Mrs. John A. Volpe, the feeling when he presented Judy with a Paul Revere bowl. "Ordinarily," he told her, "I'm called Mayor Collins," But tonight I'm just one of your 100,000 fans." Judy stopped over from the 20-foot long runway from which she sang and bestowed a kiss on the mayors cheek, and he looked pleased as Punch. Leaving early to avoid the crowds, the mayor stopped in his tracks when Bobby Cole's orchestra struck up the last number. "I'm not going to leave if she's going to sing some more," the mayor told his police escort. And he stayed.
Like a rush of river in a Spring thaw and just as inevitable, it came. HER song. Legs tucked under her, she sat on the runway and belted it out for who-knows-how-many times. "Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high." Incandescent she is. "Don't sing. Just stand there, Judy!" a man yelled to her when she paused between numbers. The beatniks were there, but so were the bankers, the matrons and the kids. Garland has captured the children, just as she captured their parents.


Familiar Blockbuster Magic Uncommonly Delightful By Ernie Santosuosso - Boston Morning Globe 09/01/67


"It was as if her voice had come out of the long years past. It was as biting crisp and burnished brass. At times it was a quasi-echo of Dorothy, from THE WIZARD OF OZ. Then it became a return visit with Polly Benedict of "The Andy Hardy" movies. Her pipes, as awesome as those in the Mormon Tabernacle, quivered here and there with a vibrato that never used to be there. She may have slid momentarily over the right key. But, in the sum total of her performance Thursday night at the Boston Common, Judy Garland delivered with her familiar blockbuster magic. Judy had come to Boston as a 'reverse' birthday gift to the City of Boston in this mammoth concert on the green. While Miss Garland invariably dipped into a comfortable bag of personal winners, it seemed she did it less out of convenience and more from shrewd sense of what her thousands of listeners wanted. The Garland story is for many millions of Americans the incredible fable of the girl who won, lost, won again, lost again and tried even harder with the determination of a snarling tigress. People find it easy to identify with Judy. Combine with that her talent and Miss Garland is everybody's sweetheart.
The Garland voice is a powerfully dramatic instrument. It can leave the blasé a-tremble, can stir the apathetic to cheers and never fails to mobilize a sort of musical catharsis in the multitude. After a psychological warm-up via an orchestral medley...out came Judy. When the screams of "Judy, Judy, Judy!" subsided, she strutted out on the red-carpeted 20-foot runway and wheeled into I FEEL A SONG COMING ON. She belted this all the way to the Parkman Bandstand. On the last chorus of THIS CAN'T BE LOVE, she literally growled the restatement of the theme; she opened JUST IN TIME at a wily stroll and gathered a full head of steam to bring it home.
Meanwhile, the I-love-you-Judy's were raining over the Common like wildly swirling butterflies. Judy responded in kind, always busy on stage. In response to the pleadings of many fans, she replied, I'll get to OVER THE RAINBOW. I always get to OVER THE RAINBOW." (In between her conversational sallies into the night, she shooed camera men who were obstructing the view of the audience.) There was a special white-hot incandescence in her version of Gilbert Becaud's WHAT NOW MY LOVE. For Judy, it was a new song, although it's been performed and recorded since 1942 by many artists.
Thursday's crowd came to hear the ear splitting RKO-type ending that is the Garland signature. In WHAT NOW MY LOVE, Judy kept stroking the blazes to a relentless bolero tempo until the Common exploded from the combustion of voice kindling song. (When the cheers had ceased a close-up transistorized individual yelled out a contrapuntal, "Red Sox leading 2 to 1") After Judy, playing the audience like a metronome, had called out: "I wish you would sing one for me, so I could take a rest." a youngster called out from the Charles ST. flank: "Take your time, we'll wait all night." The audience reciprocated with HELLO, JUDY as they had earlier vocalized on FOR ME AND MY GAL, an un-Common sing-along. On THE TROLLEY SONG she swayed and gestured full-fisted to the end of the line; sang "something new for me," a Jobim bossa nova, HOW INSENSITIVE, swept out over the night with YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU and snapped the whip again on ROCKABYE. She had fun with the verse of SAN FRANCISCO, wheeled into SWANEE and crowned the evening with OVER THE RAINBOW.
No more Dorothy. Polly Benedict is mere legend. The voice is not always true, but the duende -- that blockbusting magic is still part of the Judy Garland package.




Thursday, March 27, 2008

A STAR IS BORN OUTTAKES / ALTERNATES




Just wanted to hip everyone to the fact that they are featuring outtakes and alternate takes from the soundtrack recordings of A Star Is Born over at the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience.


And this is just a sampling, as later in April there will be a major posting of ASTIB outtakes.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

EASTER PARADE REDUX




In 1951 Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, and Peter Lawford recreated their roles from the movie Easter Parade for a special radio broadcast. That broadcast is currently being featured over on the Yahoo group.

JUDY GARLAND FOUND!











Well, the files that purportedly contained Judy's "lost" album have been uploaded to the Yahoo experience.




The tracks are actually recordings that were made for Judy to rehearse with for her TV show.




What they are forty years later are some of her classic mid sixties performances herad for the first time without an audience or announcer getting in the way of a single note of music.




Most of the tracks are solo performances, but Judy can also be heard performing with the Brothers Castro (not the Castro bros pictured), Ethel Merman, and Vic Damone.




These recordings are being heard exclusively on The Judy Garland Experience.

Judy's Final Broadcast


Judy's last concert ever, as well as her final interview were both broadcast on Radio Denmark on March 26, 1969. The broadcast, as heard on European radio, can now be heard in it's entirety over at the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience.

NANCY WILSON AT CARNEGIE HALL




The current guest artist on WHERE JUDY PLAYED is the beautiful and talented Nancy Wilson. We are featuring highlights from a Carnegie Hall concert that never made it to CD.


Be sure to stop by the Yahoo group and listen to sweet Nancy Wilson!

my buddy











This week in the INTERPRETATIONS segment of the Yahoo version of the experience we are featuring the song My Buddy as performed by Judy with Dick Shawn, Chet Baker, Dr. John, and Jaye P. Morgan with Kaye Ballard.




Feel free to go to the Yahoo version of TJGE and listen to all four renditions of the song, and then go to the polling section and vote for your favorite.

Monday, March 17, 2008

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE????







Check out these three pictures. In the picture in the upper left hand corner I recognize Judy, Joan Crawford, Basil Rathbone, and Van Johnson (in the background) but who is the natty gent with the scarf, could that be Harold Arlen?
And the photo on the bottom left, I swear that is Judy, but other people tell me "no, it's not." What do you think?
And who are the guys with Judy in the picture on the upper right side of the screen?

JUDY GARLAND ON RADIO 1936-1939


In our continuing salute to Judy Garlands radio career, we are are currently running a mini retrospective of her radio work over at the Yahoo group.

There are interviews and songs posted that span over 30 years of broadcast performances, including a few rare ones, so don't miss this.

RODGERS AND HART TODAY!











Another album of musical files posted over at the Yahoo group is a folder of songs from a 1967 television special celebrating the music of Rodgers And Hart. This special featured Bobby Daring performing with Petula Clark and The Supremes. If you like classic American standard you will love this album (plus you get to hear Bobby Darin performing The Lady Is A Tramp for what I think is the first and only time in his career (and yes, he gives Sinatra a run for his money).

JUDY AT THE PALACE 1967




In 1967 Judy played her last engagement at the Palace. We have one of the many recordings made from that gig currently posted over at the experience.


Be sure to check it out.

EYDIE GORME ON THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW




Well, she wasn't exactly a guest, but she did appear in the audience of the show, and even took a bow. And yes, we have that rare piece of audio, as well as some live recordings by Ms. Gorme, including a Medley of Sinatra songs which suspiciously includes a few Garland songs in it.


All this (and more) is posted over at the mama group.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY


Of course we couldn't let the day pass without a few of Judy's Irish standards, on this, the day that everybody is at least part Irish.

Please visit the audio section of the Yahoo version of TJGE and listen to Judy singing some of her favorite songs 'o the green.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

AT HOME WITH THE VANKILDES




Judy's final concert and interview were both broadcast on Radio Denmark on March 26, 1969. That complete broadcast will be posted over at the Yahoo group later this month. But right now there is posted additional recordings made by Hans Vankilde, the host of the radio program, that he made when Judy visited his home.


These rare, private recordings are fascinating to listen to. If you want to hear them, now is your chance as they will only be available until this weekend. So run, don't walk, to Yahoo's The Judy Garland Experience.

MY KIND OF TOWN, MY KIND OF JUDY


Currently posted over at the Yahoo version of TJGE is a rare concert that was recorded at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago on May 7, 1965. Judy sings all of her concert staples as well as a one time only version of My Kind Of Town. These files will only be available for a short time, so go over and listen whilst you have the chance.


Tuesday, March 11, 2008

2 JOANS AND A JUDY, OR 3 JOANS?







Over at the Yahoo version of TJGE there has been some speculation regarding a photograph over here. The picture sort of, kind of looked like Judy Garland, but nobody thought so really, but then, who is the person in the picture?
The latest sccop is that the photograph is of actress Joan Evans. Here is that original photo, plus two others that are identified as Evans, you decide for yourself.



Monday, March 10, 2008

JUDY GARLAND, The Lost Studio Album


Over at the Yahoo group, SOMEBODY has been dropping hints that there is a long lost Judy Garland studio recording that will finally see the light of day, and not only that, but it will be making it's world debut on the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience later this month.

Hmmmm. Can it be true?

BETTE DAVIS IS THE DECORATOR


Well, it isn't Bette's proudest moment, but I guess it is fun hearing her do innane 60's comedy.

But for poor Bette (who was in a career slump), this is just one step above guesting on The Beverly Hillbillies.

Only for Bette's die hard fans, lovers of camp, and bored people...

JUDY IN THE DARK


In 1953 Judy did a radio performance of Lady In The Dark. A folder of her songs from that broadcast has been uploaded to the Yahoo group.

Judy and My Ship, a perfect match!

QUEEN OF THE NIGHT?




Over in the Yahoo group there has been some recent speculation as to whether Judy would have been a good host for a late night chat show.


There is only one known example of her in that position, the night she took over hosting chores for Merv Griffin. This show was broadcast on January 6, 1969 and features Judy with Arthur Treacher, along with their guest's The Strawberry Alarm Clock, Moms Mabley, Van Johnson, and Rex Reed.


Of course over at the Yahoo group we have the audio to the show (and yes, Judy sang).


Here is the link:


Judy sings Over The Rainbow with original verse




Two of Judy's interviews and performances from The Louella Parsons Show have been uploaded to the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience.


One is from 1948, and after her interview segment, Judy sings a rare rendition of Over The Rainbow. What makes this so unique is the fact that Judy sings the rarely heard verse to the song.


The other show is from 1954, and after the interview Judy's classic recording of The Man That Got Away is introduced to the world!




Friday, March 7, 2008

GARLAND AT THE GROVE


Just wanted to hip you to the fact that Judy Garland's first official "live" album, Garland At The Grove, has just been released on CD via the DRG label. This is not one of my favorite Judy Garland albums so I haven't exactly rushed out to buy it yet. Judy is not in the best of vocal shape on this recording as it was recorded on the last night of the engagement and the strain of several weeks of performing night after night shows in her voice.

That being said there is one gem that I remember from the original album. Judy does a bang up, no holds barred version of Harold Arlen's When The Sun Comes Out. Her performance is so powerful that she inspires the Freddy Martin Orchestra to give that little something extra that raises them from their normal "B" band status to the A category.

As I said, I don't have the CD yet, but I have heard from members of the Yahoo version of The Judy Garland Experience that DRG obviously cut costs in putting this CD together. There are no extra pictures, it isn't quite as complete as it purports to be, and oddest of all, it appears that nobody bothered to proof the liner notes, as it contains some embarrasing (for the author and DRG) errors.

But if you are a die hard Garland fan who collects everything by her (like me) you will probably be glad that this recording finally made it to CD.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

iGive.com


Robin, one of the moderator's at our yahoo group (see photo on right) hipped me to this cool organization, and I felt inspired to share the info with you.

Anyone who spends any time shopping on line should know about iGive.com. Basically, any time you order something online from one of the participating stores, they give a percentage to the cause of your choice--any cause, and if it's not on their list, you can add it. It can be anything from the March of Dimes to a personal cause (the example in the link is someone's kids' dance school). And all you have to do to send the donation is go to the iGive site first and choose the store from there instead of going to it directly.The list of stores who participate is really long, and includes the Apple Store (including iTunes), LLBean, 1-800-Flowers, and Banana Republic, to name just a couple. (Amazon is not a participant, unfortunately, but B & N is). I found out about them when the Wild Animal Sanctuary joined a year or two ago.And you can have more than one cause. Here is the link for more info and to register:http://www.igive.com/welcome/

Sunnyvale

Followers

http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejudygarlandexperience/

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